1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to communication and, in particular, to methods, systems and program products for communication via a wireless communication network. Still more particularly, the present invention is related to methods, systems and program products for regulating data messaging by a mobile station in a wireless communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the adoption of new digital technologies, over-the-air radio frequency (RF) communication provides an ever increasing number of voice and data services to users of mobile stations, such as digital pagers and mobile telephones. In order to permit interoperability of mobile stations between networks, standards organizations have promulgated a number of specifications to define required features and behaviors of access networks, core networks and network devices providing over-the-air RF communication. For example, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) defines a number of specifications for communications employing the 3rd generation (3G) Code Division Multiple Access (cdma2000) protocols, which support wireless voice and data services.
Among the many specifications promulgated by 3GPP2, is C.S0005-D v1.0 (TIA-2000.5-D), entitled “Upper Layer (Layer 3) Signaling Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems Release D,” which is dated February 2004, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, and hereinafter referred to as the “Standard.” As indicated by its title, the Standard specifies the signaling protocols and messaging format of network layer (Layer 3) communication in a cdma2000-compliant communication network.
The present invention recognizes that conventional wireless communication protocols, as exemplified by the Standard, do not support sufficient regulation of data messaging by mobile stations. For example, the Standard permits a base station to delay certain types of messaging by a mobile station (e.g., origination messages and resource requests), but does not support the regulation of data burst messages by individual mobile stations. As a result, when network or radio channel congestion occurs, a base station may not be able to appropriately process or respond to data burst messages, resulting in lost data and unnecessary utilization of airlink resources.
The present invention recognizes that it would be useful and desirable to reduce or eliminate such needless utilization of airlink resources by promoting improved regulation of data messaging by mobile stations.